Day 9 (Salinas)

Tuesday, January 23, 2017

I woke up early (5:45) my first morning in the hotel along with Gracie, Elsbeth, and Jeanne because we all wanted to see the sunrise. We sadly realized after walking outside that the sky was too cloudy to see the sunrise. In defeat, we all returned back to our hotel beds to sleep for another 2 hours before breakfast (which began at 8). While I followed through with the plan to meet at 8 for breakfast, my entourage didn’t, meaning I got to have a quite breakfast to myself (I even got to enjoy real coffee!). 

After breakfast, I went to swim in the pool (as I didn’t feel it was the smartest to go to the beach alone). I was later joined by my friends that had slept through my breakfast plans, and we all went to the second larger pool. We all swam around (by this point the pool was filled with exchange students). After a while, Gracie, Els, Helena, Lis (France),  Jared, Jeanne and I all walked to the beach. Walking down the beach meant that we were asked/slightly harassed by all the Ecuadorians trying to sell us something or to get us to participate in something. We took one man up (or started to), and began talking about taking a banana boat out. The man first told us the price was $4. Having all been in Perú for 5-6 months at this point, we all have become horribly cheap. The thought of having to pay $4 for a boat ride seemed simply outrageous. So after arguing with the man back and forth for a little bit, we got it down to $2. Jared however wasn't satisfied with this price, as he thought we should only have to pay $1.50. So, we ended up walking away from the man and settling on swimming for a while. The fact that we walked away from a service because of 50 cents goes to show (in my opinion) how cheap I have become in Perú. We of course knew that we were no longer in Perú, and were in fact in Ecuador, but that simply didn’t stop us. The thought of spending money on things I know are much cheaper in Perú prevents me from by and doing certain things. Overall, I felt that Ecuador was a bit more expensive of a country than Perú. This could be because we were along the coast of Ecuador and not living in a town, but with that said, living in Lima (the capital of Perú), felt much cheaper than Ecuador. To add to this argument, were we were at (Salinas), didn’t have many foreign tourists. According to an Ecuadorian, the majority of the beach goers in the area are from Ecuador and simply have condos along the beach (which we were told was fairly inexpensive). 

Bringing the topic back to the beach, we all swam around and had lots of fun. One Ecuadorian lady asked us where we were all from as we were having fun. We all told her where we were from, and it turns out that while she was Ecuadorian, her husband was Dutch, so she had lived in the Netherlands for 22 years. So, her and Elsbeth had a conversation in Dutch while we all eavsdropped. Before long the conversations kept switching languages from English to Spanish to Dutch. It was really cool to talk to her, as she had traveled many places and gave us the insight on the area (hence our knowledge of the condos). She also told us to be very careful as 2 people had drowned in nearby beaches that week and one had almost died the day before. This year is El Niño, meaning the weather and waves are completely different. This meant that normally calm waters now had large waves and strong currents. While the waves in the beach were fairly calm at the time, it was easy to imagine how the waves could change. 

After a while, our conversation ended, and we all got out to dry off. It was then that Gracie and I decided that we would forfeit our 50 cents and pay for the banana boat. Jeanne was also game, and after being conned into it, Lis as well. So, we all boarded the banana boat and went to see if it was worth $2. If you don't know what a banana boat is, imagine a long giant hotdog shaped boat with straps for you to hold onto. The boat is attached to one with a motor, and then pulled around. While the ride was fairly short, it was pretty fun. The man asked us if we wanted to be thrown off, to which we all said yes. I think in general we all regretted this decision as the effort it took to get ourselves back on the boat was a little embarrassing (I barely made it without help).

After our boat ride, we all swam back to shore and got out once again. We dried off in the sun, before heading back to the hotel. Els, Helena, and I all showered and put on real clothes later that night and went out to explore. We walked to all the little tourist shacks, all of which were more expensive than Peru’s. In Perú, I has started collecting bracelets from everywhere we went. In Peru, the cost of the bracelets is around 1 sol. Here the bracelets are $1. It broke my heart to do it, but I ended spending $2 on bracelets. Els had really wanted an anklet made of white stone or shells, but after going to all the booths, we couldn’t find one. So, one kind lady set about and about and made us a custom one. It ended up being $5 and exactly what Els wanted. While in the market, I realized another difference between the Peruvian souvenirs and the Ecuadorian ones. This could be made up in my mind, but the Peruvians seemed more desperate, and more willing to barter with you than the Ecuadorians. 

After the souvenirs, we went to buy snacks and I bought sunscreen ($17, I wanted to cry). We then went to the beach as we had spied some more exchange students chilling. We all danced and played sports before retiring back to the hotel for dinner. Afterwards, we all went to the bar so that we could dance. I wasn’t feeling the music after a while, and ended up going up to my room.